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Crespolini
Mar 9, 2014

Red tailed Hawks just tend to hang out in David's bedroom?

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Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010


If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER


Ultra Carp
Gah, got busy and had been procrastinating on catching up with this thread, only to find out we're already 2/3 through the David saga! :argh: Well, at least I'm caught up for the conclusion.

On the latest chapter: it is a bit weird how David keeps winning these 1v1 fights against more experienced Animorphs. Jake, Rachel, and the rest have been doing this now for months, if not a full year, whereas David's only been at it for a few days. Yet, he already beat Jake in a fair fight, would have beaten Rachel if not for Tobias stepping in, incapacitated Ax... Obviously for dramatic purposes the dude needs to be a threat, but the kid is pushing beginner's luck pretty hard.

Book/Trilogy thoughts: Echoing what others have said, this trilogy is great but David's character suffers from the truncated nature of the books. Something that's easy to forget outside of this thread is just how short these books are, and they're forced to move very rapidly as a result. David is unquestionably a dick, but he also has very little room to actually develop as a character—It would have been nice to see any of his own internal monologue, or to see him connect (or actively reject a connection) to any of the other characters before his sudden yet inevitable betrayal.

Other thoughts: I dropped off this thread halfway through Megamorphs 2, which really isn't as good as I remembered it. The ending though was really solid—dooming the Mercora is one of the most hosed-up decisions the Animorphs have to make outside of what they do to David at the end of this book :shepface:, and the image of the comet striking and the last T-Rex wandering across the wastes before succumbing to starvation was one of the big mental images that stuck with me from this series when I read it the first time as a kid. Now in retrospect, I also wonder if writing that section was what inspired them to begin writing Remnants—which, for those who don't know, literally begins with a asteroid striking earth in an extinction-level event. (And for those who haven't read it, oh boy Remnants is a hosed up series, and the death of almost the entire human race is only the start).

edit: Also, someone should really bug a mod for a thread name change.

Acebuckeye13 fucked around with this message at 07:40 on May 10, 2021

Pwnstar
Dec 9, 2007

Who wants some waffles?

Marco would totally believe he could untie himself and would spend hours doing so because he almost had it that time.

Mazerunner
Apr 22, 2010

Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

Crespolini posted:

Red tailed Hawks just tend to hang out in David's bedroom?

David killed a red-tail near his house and brought the body to his bedroom, presumably as bait.

But when Tobias actually showed up to save Rachel they were out in a field or something near some powerlines. So yeah it makes sense that he didn't see what hit him and thought it was maybe one of the other animorphs

freebooter
Jul 7, 2009

Yeah I figured it was dark, he can't see poo poo (if he'd seen and avoided the powerlines by anything other than catching up to Rachel first, he would've gloated about it) and he probably assumes it was Ax.

Marco not immediately morphing out of being tied up also immediately struck me, unless it's another case of "you can be knocked out and be unconscious for as long the plot demands," but even weirder: why on earth did Jake sit around waiting for a bus like a loser instead of flying home?

edit - that reminds me of a story I heard about after Ian Fleming died, and various writers were pitching the estate with drafts for the right to continue the franchise, and one American writer was doing very well, they said, right up to the point where they had James Bond arrive at the airport and then... wait for a bus.

Shwoo
Jul 21, 2011

Jake might have just been too tired to want to try morphing again, since he'd already morphed a few times and hadn't got any sleep. I have no explanation for Marco. The way it's phrased implies he wasn't unconscious, either. He could have got more sleep than any of them, except maybe Cassie.

Actually, it seems kind of irresponsible of Cassie's mum to wake her up for this on a school night, unless Cassie was already awake. The random mall tiger had nothing to do with her, as far as her mum knew.

OctaviusBeaver
Apr 30, 2009

Say what now?
I would let my kid miss a day of school to help with a tiger rescue.

e X
Feb 23, 2013

cool but crude
The whole night scene across the two books is really great with a lot of tension, but the way they resolve all the problems of screen again really shows the limitations of these books.

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


Yeah, the only place this book really suffers is trying to resolve the cliffhanger.

* Jake is critically injured and can't wake up! ...but he will survive in that critically injured state long enough for the police to arrive and call for help, then for Cassie's mom to show up and stabilize him enough for transport to the Gardens, then he just walks out instead of morphing again so that he has to stay up all night waiting for the bus. (If the argument is "he was too tired and didn't want to morph," how much more tired is he now that he's running on no sleep instead of flying home in ten minutes and at least getting a couple hours in bed?)

* Marco is tied up and locked in his closet!... but that isn't actually a problem, he can morph an insect or anything else that can crawl under a door, except I guess he forgot how. And nobody checked on him after David was driven off.

* Tobias might be dead! ...but he isn't, he just got lost despite being their best scout, and it was a random other red-tailed hawk who was conveniently active enough at night to catch David's attention despite definitely not being nocturnal, and when Tobias returned he conveniently attacked David in such a way that David couldn't see him even after retreating. And then, as mentioned above, he didn't check on Marco.

I really like this book, but the cliffhanger from #21 isn't good enough to justify the haphazard resolution at the start here.

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

Tobias got better!

Chapter 8

Yup, this chapter resolves all the dilemmas from the last book all at once way too neatly. Why would there be a random mundane red-tail flying around, in the same area, that late at night? They're not night hunters, at all.

SSJ_naruto_2003
Oct 12, 2012



Acebuckeye13 posted:

Gah, got busy and had been procrastinating on catching up with this thread, only to find out we're already 2/3 through the David saga! :argh: Well, at least I'm caught up for the conclusion.

On the latest chapter: it is a bit weird how David keeps winning these 1v1 fights against more experienced Animorphs. Jake, Rachel, and the rest have been doing this now for months, if not a full year, whereas David's only been at it for a few days. Yet, he already beat Jake in a fair fight, would have beaten Rachel if not for Tobias stepping in, incapacitated Ax... Obviously for dramatic purposes the dude needs to be a threat, but the kid is pushing beginner's luck pretty hard.

Book/Trilogy thoughts: Echoing what others have said, this trilogy is great but David's character suffers from the truncated nature of the books. Something that's easy to forget outside of this thread is just how short these books are, and they're forced to move very rapidly as a result. David is unquestionably a dick, but he also has very little room to actually develop as a character—It would have been nice to see any of his own internal monologue, or to see him connect (or actively reject a connection) to any of the other characters before his sudden yet inevitable betrayal.



Shows what the animorphs could do if they're actually ruthless, not afraid of killing, etc

Epicurius
Apr 10, 2010
College Slice
Animorphs Book 22-The Solution, Chapter 9

quote:

David walked away. The real Marco headed toward us, looking about like I felt.

I got up.

“Rachel, what are you doing?” Cassie asked. She put out a hand to grab my arm.

But Jake said, “Let her go.”

I followed David’s back as he wove through the kids just coming in. In the empty hallway outside, David began to change subtly. He was demorphing. By the time he reached the door to the quad, he was himself again. He must have been close to the two-hour limit to risk it.

I caught up with him as he started to trot across the grass. I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. I was keyed up, throbbing with barely contained rage.

“You looking for a fight right here?” he asked.

“Why not?” I snapped. He laughed, a little uncertainly. “You would never morph here in the open.”

“I don’t need a morph to handle you.”

“You know, maybe you forget this sometimes, but you are a girl, Rachel.”

“And you’re a worm,” I shot back. “Want to see who wins that fight?”

“Pretty upset over that Bird-boy, aren’t you? What, did you like him or something?” He grinned.

“That’s it, isn’t it? Aww, how sweet. Too bad. But you know, birds have a short life span.”

“So do worms.”

“What are you doing? Trying to scare me?”

“Nah. I wouldn’t want to scare you. I just want to tell you something. You rat us out to Visser Three, we’ll know. We have sources inside the Yeerk organization.”

He made a snorting noise. “Yeah, right.”

“How do you think we knew the Yeerks were moving against the President and the others? How do you think we learned that one of those heads of state was a Controller?”

David looked a little less cocky. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he realized I was telling the truth. We hadn’t told David about Erek and the other Chee.

“So see, you sell us out to Visser Three, we will know,” I said.

He shrugged. “Big deal. Nothing you can do about it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said. “Even if we were warned, we wouldn’t last long.” I leaned close, close enough to whisper in his ear. “But some of us would last a while, you little creep. [This is the word that was supposedly censored. Supposedly, it was bastard]

Long enough to make sure that your parents … well, use your imagination.”

He stepped back, drew back his fist, and swung on me. I dodged the blow. I grabbed his head with one arm and jammed the fork against his ear.

I fought a nauseating urge to twist the fork, to make him scream in pain.

“You want a war between you and us, that’s one thing. We’ll play that out,” I said. “But you try and sell us out to Visser Three, and your little family will never get put back together again. Never!”

This time I was the one to turn and walk away.

I was shaking.

The muscles in my neck were twitching. Suddenly I had a raging headache. My ears were ringing.

I was exhausted, yes. But it was more than that. I was high on adrenaline. High on the rush of power and violence.

What had I just done? In all the time we’d been fighting the Yeerks, I’d never made a threat like that. What was the matter with me?

I felt … not exactly ashamed. But I knew I never wanted to talk to Cassie about what I’d just told David. Or Tobias. Or even Marco.

And as for Jake, I found myself filled with a terrifying surge of pure, utter hatred for him. I couldn’t begin to explain it. But I swear at that moment I hated Jake far more than I did David.

I should have gone back to the cafeteria. I should have told them all what had happened. But Jake already knew, didn’t he? Jake, the smart, determined leader, already knew all about me.

And I couldn’t face him. I couldn’t face what he knew about me.

i sort of feel like this book sort of affects Rachel's and Jake's relationship going forward, along with Rachel's realization that she's an impulsive and violent person and doesn''t want to be.

Chapter 10

quote:

Jake’s parents came back that evening. They’d been out of town helping with a cousin of Jake’s and mine. The cousin’s name was Saddler. He was an obnoxious kid, but he’d been badly hurt in an accident. Now he was being moved to the children’s hospital near us.

His relatives were staying with Jake and his family. But we were expected to help out, too, even though my mom hasn’t really gotten along with Saddler’s family since my parents’ divorce.

I was informed of all this when I got home from school. I said “fine” and staggered up to my bed, hit the pillow facedown, and didn’t move.

But as tired as I was, sleep wouldn’t come. It was a helpless feeling. Being so exhausted and so unable to sleep.

My brain kept buzzing away, like I’d consumed six pots of coffee or something.

I kept wondering: Had I always been like this? Back before the Animorphs, back before that encounter with a dying alien who changed our lives, who had I been?

I tried to remember, but it wasn’t like I was thinking about myself. It was like I was remembering some girl I used to know. Like she was an acquaintance I’d forgotten about until someone reminded me. It was like, “Oh, yeah, Rachel. I remember her.”

I’d been very into gymnastics, I knew that. Shopping. I guess I’d never exactly been a happy-go-lucky party girl. But I tried to imagine myself back then, and tried to imagine grinding the tines of a fork into someone’s ear while I threatened his family.

I almost laughed. It was crazy. I mean, I’m not someone raised in an abusive family or anything. Yeah, my folks got divorced, but probably a third of the kids in school have divorced parents, and another third wish their parents would divorce.

I’d never had to wonder if my parents loved me. I knew they did. They told me. And they showed me.

I wasn’t on drugs or anything. But somehow, someway, I had gone from being this occasionally sharp-tongued girl, to being … well, as Marco would say, Xena: Warrior Princess.

What made me feel stupid was that I hadn’t realized I was changing. But everyone else obviously did. Jake did. When he knew it was coming down to kill-or-be-killed with David, he’d sent Ax to get me. Not Marco. Not Cassie. “Get Rachel.”

And in the cafeteria he had let me go, knowing what I would do. Afterward, I’d seen Cassie in sixth period. She didn’t ask me what had happened. She didn’t ask me what I’d said to David. She’d known.

I could have said, “Look at all the battles I’ve been through.” It would have been a good excuse.

Except that Cassie’d gone through the same battles. And Marco. And Tobias.

Would Tobias have done what I did? That was the killer question, see. Because Tobias lived life as a predator now. He’d have every excuse in the world. But I wondered if even he would have gone as far as I’d gone.

And, I wondered something else. What if David ignored my threat? Would I … could I …

“Rachel! Phone! What are you, deaf?”

I jerked upright. It was dark outside my window. “What?” I asked for no particular reason.

Jordan, my younger sister, stuck her head into the room. “It’s Jake. He’s on the phone.”

I sat up. My head was buzzing. I rolled over and grabbed the phone. “Yeah?” I said, pushing my hair more or less into place.

“It’s time,” Jake said. “That little extra-credit project we’ve been working on. It’s time for us to give it another shot.”

“Oh. Yeah. I’ll be right over. Soon as I, you know.”

Man, I was stupid from lack of sleep. We still had a mission. We’d failed yesterday evening and had almost been trapped by Visser Three.

Yesterday? Had it really only been yesterday? It seemed impossible, with all that had gone on.

I splashed cold water on my face and ran a comb through my hair. Then I went downstairs to face my mom and try to think up a good excuse why I had to go over to Cassie’s house.

“Rachel!” my mother said as she spotted me coming down the stairs. “Good. I need you to watch Sarah. I’m going over to the hospital to be with Saddler’s mom and dad.”

I was about halfway ready to say, “Fine. That sure beats trying yet again to bust into some heavily guarded compound and getting our brains beat in.”

But that wouldn’t do. “You want me to babysit for Sarah and Jordan?”

“No one baby-sits me!” Jordan said hotly.

“Oh, yeah?” I mocked. “You are either the baby-sitter or the baby-sittee. And you are a babysittee.”

“Mom! No way! I can take care of Sarah!” Jordan protested.

“Come on, little babies,” I added for good measure.

Well, you can guess where it went from there. Ten minutes later I was out the door. And ten minutes after that I was demorphing inside Cassie’s barn.

Everyone else was already there. Ax, Tobias, Jake, Cassie, and Marco. At least, I assumed it was Marco and not David in morph.

“Marco,” I said, once I had demorphed. “You know you’re a toad?”

“Kiss me and I’ll become a prince,” he said without hesitation. “I’ll be The Prince Formerly Known As Toad. You know you want me. You can’t help it. After all, you’re a female and I’m … well, I’m me.”

“Yeah, that’s the real Marco,” I said dryly.

Cassie laughed. “Believe me, we all did the same kind of thing. I asked him to tell me what it was like when we morphed trout. Just to test his memory.”

“And I answered that it wasn’t bad except that the cracker-crumb coating chafed a little and I was allergic to tartar sauce. Now can you all stop playing that game? I’m afraid I’ll miss a punch line and Rachel will morph to grizzly and eat me before I have a chance to say anything.”

“Okay, down to business,” Jake said. He sent Ax a significant look and jerked his head toward me.

<Prince Jake would like me to tell you that we are operating under the assumption that David may be here in the barn,> Ax said in private thought-speak. <He is concerned that David may be here in insect morph, listening to our plans. So our plans will be different than we are discussing here.>

I gave a very slight nod. Of course. I’d forgotten. David was one of us, at least in terms of his powers. But Jake hadn’t forgotten.

Jake outlined a plan that was basically the same as our previous attempt to infiltrate the banquet at the resort. There were differences, just so it would sound convincing. And we all raised various objections, just to sound even more convincing.

But it wasn’t till we were morphed and flying away that Jake told me what he really had in mind.

<Oh, Rachel’s gonna love this,> Marco said with a laugh.

He was right. The plan was outrageous, insane, out of control, and violent.

And heaven help me, I liked it.

This is more of Rachel coming to terms with herself and the way she feels.

Also, I think this is kind of neat. I don't include book dedications here, but this book is dedicated ""For Jeff Sampson and all of his friends"" Jeff Sampson made an early Animorph web page. Originally, Applegate wanted to dedicate the book to specific fan sites and include links to them, but Scholastic said no for legal reasons (Scholastic doesn't have any control what's on them....what happens if a site is listed and it turns into some child unfriendly page, etc.) So this dedication was to all her fans who made webpages.

Terror Sweat
Mar 15, 2009

Yeah, it's a shame what Jeff Sampson did to all those people years later, but you can't expect the author to know the future

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

[This is the word that was supposedly censored. Supposedly, it was bastard]

Huh. I have a 1998 edition that claims to be a first printing by Scholastic, but it still says "creep". Maybe it was in the mail order version?

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013





What kind of awful parents name their child Saddler?

Epicurius
Apr 10, 2010
College Slice

Terror Sweat posted:

Yeah, it's a shame what Jeff Sampson did to all those people years later, but you can't expect the author to know the future

Our hearts go out to his victims.

The website, btw, was morphz dot com, which I'm not linking to directly. It's not up anymore, but if you wayback machine it, you can see it. Obviously, it contains spoilers, as all the cached versions are after the date of this book.

nine-gear crow posted:

What kind of awful parents name their child Saddler?

Jeff. Tom, and Rachel's aunt and uncle, apparently. From what we hear about Saddler, the kid's a jerk, so maybe he wouldn't be if he had a better name.

WrightOfWay
Jul 24, 2010


nine-gear crow posted:

What kind of awful parents name their child Saddler?

They're big horseback riders.

Tree Bucket
Apr 1, 2016

R.I.P.idura leucophrys

nine-gear crow posted:

What kind of awful parents name their child Saddler?

This just comes under the I-can't-use-my-real-name thing. Saddler is clearly a stand-in for some other ghastly name, like Ryder or Cobbler or Wainwright.

SirSamVimes
Jul 21, 2008

~* Challenge *~


Lmao at the means of testing to see if Marco is really Marco is to bait him into telling bad jokes.

QuickbreathFinisher
Sep 28, 2008

by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

Epicurius posted:

i sort of feel like this book sort of affects Rachel's and Jake's relationship going forward, along with Rachel's realization that she's an impulsive and violent person and doesn''t want to be.

Oh yeah, whether or not this book's events are being engineered by the Ellimist and (book 26 spoiler) Crayak...btw they definitely are even if it isn't explicit text, the tension between the cousins definitely begins to flare here. I love all the playing on this tension that happens later in the series, even if the characterization begins to get flatter and more one-dimensional as the ghostwritten books become the norm. I just finished 26 which plays nicely on Jake's emerging martyr complex and is possibly the best Jake book. I'm about to reread 27 which I remember liking but I can't remember a Rachel book I like more than this one and book 7 off the top of my head. There is some really great interplay between the kids and non animorph characters like Erek, David, etc coming up as well.

and of course the end of this book is easily one of the most disturbing things they ever do. The genocides, sure, par for the course.The haunted rat island didn't resonate as much with me as a kid but boy oh boy. Do not cross the cool kids at Anywhere California High. they will destroy you.

freebooter
Jul 7, 2009

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

I just finished 26 which plays nicely on Jake's emerging martyr complex and is possibly the best Jake book. I'm about to reread 27 which I remember liking but I can't remember a Rachel book I like more than this one and book 7 off the top of my head.

26 and 27 are both great books but not particularly great Jake and Rachel books IMO, if that makes sense. They're the kind of books that would be great regardless of who was narrating and don't (as far as I recall) have particularly strong links to the narrator's arc.

Rochallor
Apr 23, 2010

ふっっっっっっっっっっっっck

QuickbreathFinisher posted:

Oh yeah, whether or not this book's events are being engineered by the Ellimist and (book 26 spoiler) Crayak...btw they definitely are even if it isn't explicit text,

This came up a little earlier in discussion of how the blue box survived the Yeerk bombardment of the construction site, but that's probably a good example of how the Ellimist and Crayak work. Each of them thinks that they can turn the blue box into an advantage for their side; Crayak sees that David might screw up the Animorphs' plan to save the G6 leaders, and the Ellimist sees how morphing gives Yeerks a way out of their particular life cycle. So it gets placed in a convenient cavity in the rock.

Bibliotechno Music
Dec 30, 2008

From the PYF meme thread:

QuickbreathFinisher
Sep 28, 2008

by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

freebooter posted:

26 and 27 are both great books but not particularly great Jake and Rachel books IMO, if that makes sense. They're the kind of books that would be great regardless of who was narrating and don't (as far as I recall) have particularly strong links to the narrator's arc.

Good point. Jakes narration does come thru a bit in 26 when he gets split off from the rest while killing/acquiring the Howler that seems to have killed Cassie but the book itself is one of my favorites basically on the story alone. I'd almost say if there was a narrator with more of a "thing" it might actually draw from the batshit energy of that book.

I'd say Jake's strongest narrations I can remember are probably in 6, 16, and 21. Maybe 11 [REDACTED] because the mission went so wrong[REDACTED]. As the blank slate character he does suffer quite a bit from being a bit of a snore if leadership/war decision trauma isn't your thing.

Epicurius
Apr 10, 2010
College Slice
Animorphs Book 22-The Solution, Chapter 11

quote:

It was a Marriott resort by the ocean. It had been taken over for a summit meeting by the President of the United States, the prime minister of Great Britain, the premier of France, the president of Russia, and the prime minister of Japan.

Was there security? Oh, yeah. There was security. There were more guys in dark suits and sunglasses with microphones in their ears than had ever come together in one place before. It was like an international Secret Service convention.

That was bad enough. But what was worse was the fact that some of those security guys were Controllers. Some of the U.S. Secret Service, for sure. Probably some of the French, British, Russian, and Japanese, too.

And we knew Visser Three was there, doing everything within his twisted, evil imagination to make Controllers of all these powerful men.

We also knew that at least one of the heads of state - we didn’t know which one - was already a Controller.

So basically, this was a tough target. Even for us. There were just way too many guys looking to shoot anything suspicious.

It was also a mission we had to do. Period. Had to. If the Yeerks made Controllers of these guys, that was it. Game over.

We had tried a subtle approach. We’d walked into a trap.

Now Jake was ready for the less-than-subtle approach. This would be like when you’re in a chess game and you know you’re going to lose so you grab the board and throw it across the room.

That was the plan.

First stop, The Gardens. I was all set on morphs. But Tobias, Cassie, Ax, and Marco needed something new for their night’s work.

We needed morphs that could make a big mess. And morphs that could take getting shot by handguns. We all needed what Jake and I already had.

Once that was done we flew straight out to sea as seagulls. It was a tough flight. The wind was getting stronger by the minute, racing in across impressive waves. And then the lightning started.

<Yaahh!> Marco yelled as the first jagged bolt lit up the clouds and the waves.

It was one bolt, a long pause, then another. Another pause, and suddenly it was as if a light show had begun. Bolts of lightning that looked as thick as trees pushed their jerking way across the sky.

Huge bolts struck the waves again and again all around us, even though we were only a few hundred yards from shore.

And the thunder! Imagine the loudest thunder you’ve ever heard, then multiply it by five. It was like my head was stuck inside a steel drum and someone was hitting it with sledge hammers.

Lightning, thunder, and then the rain began to pour.

<That’s nice,> Marco said. <That’s just perfect.>

<Jake, we’re not going to make any more distance against this wind,> Tobias said. <Especially not with wet feathers.>

<Yeah, you’re right,> Jake agreed. <We’ll swim the rest of the way along the coast.>

<No problem. All we have to do is land in the water,> I said.

<Seagulls land in water all the time,> Cassie pointed out. <Although maybe not in the middle of a hurricane …>

No doubt she was right. But seagull or not, let me tell you, it was a fairly terrifying experience.

Here’s the thing. You’re a small, white bird. Smaller than an average chicken. The ocean is black as coal, aside from the pale phosphoresence as some of the waves crest. You basically can’t see the waves at all because the clouds are totally covering the moon and the stars. But every few seconds the entire seascape is lit up by lightning. Sometimes it’s a dim sort of light cast by some far off bolt whose thunder takes ten seconds to reach you. Other times the lightning is closer, and then the waves are turned into brilliant silver slopes and black, triangular shadows, just long enough to let you realize how tall the waves are.

I floated down, following Jake, for once not rushing out ahead. I have a lot of respect for the ocean.

I almost had to fight to go lower, the wind was so strong. Thirty feet up … twenty feet …

Lightning!

Suddenly the water was no longer twenty feet below me. It was rushing straight up at me. It was like being in a plane and flying over a mountain, only suddenly the mountain swells up like a zit about to pop and up it comes while all you can do is wait for it.

PLOOSH!

Water foamed over me. But I bobbed easily to the surface, like a cork. I almost laughed. It was easy! I was too buoyant to sink. As I tucked my wings back, it felt just like bodysurfing.

We landed yards apart, of course. There was no way to be more precise. I caught lightning glimpses of the others, tiny white birds riding big black waves.

<Everyone down okay?> Jake called out.

One by one, we answered.

<Okay, now the tough part.>

He didn’t have to explain. We all knew. We were going to morph to dolphin. Once we were dolphin, everything would be fine. Dolphins own the ocean.

But to get to dolphin, we’d have to become human again. And maybe a seagull or a dolphin belonged out in these two-story waves, but no human being did.[/quote[

And so everybody drowned. Good series everyone!

Chapter 12

[quote]<This is going to be rough,> Jake said. <Everyone be very careful.>

<Jake, why don’t we do this one at a time?> Cassie suggested. <I’ll go first. Then I can help the others.>

<Okay,> Jake said. <Cassie morphs first. She’s fastest.>

It made sense. Cassie was the best at morphing. Jake was using her for her special talent. Like he used Marco for his suspicious mind. Like he used Ax for his knowledge of all things alien. Like he used Tobias for his raptor eyes and ears.

Like he used me. For what? For my recklessness? For something dark that lived inside me?

Cassie’s thought-speak voice fell silent as she began to morph. I saw her only once in a one second burst of electric light. She was a twisting, misshapen mess of waterlogged feathers and skin with an eerie, Halloween face.

I heard her yelp in surprise and when next the lightning flashed, all I could see was a human hand raised above the water.

<Cassie!> I cried. <Cassie!>

No answer! She was drowning. Stupid to let her go first. She was a great morpher, but I was a better swimmer. I began to demorph as fast as I could.

<Jake, she’s drowning!> I yelled.

<Don’t do anything stupid, Rachel. She’ll pull it out.>

I thought bull, but I kept quiet and continued growing, heavier and heavier, less and less buoyant.

Soon I was a fifty-pound mass with a handful of feathers. I began to sink. I sucked at the air and filled my lungs, just as a wave crashed down and buried me.

I expected to bob right back up. But the wave had driven me down. And I had no hands to swim with! My feet were huge bird claws, only now beginning to web up.

Panic!

No, no! I ordered myself, enraged by my momentary terror. Keep morphing! It’s the only way. But my lungs were burning already. I’d gone from tiny seagull lungs to human lungs and there wasn’t an ounce of air in my body.

I craned my head back to look up. But was it up? I couldn’t be sure. It was dark all around me.

Dark, as if I’d fallen into a vat of ink. Where was up?

I was swimming now, kicking with human feet and snatching at the water with human hands. But I couldn’t feel gravity. I couldn’t tell if I was rising or simply plowing myself further and further down. And then something bumped against me. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel rubbery skin.

<Relax, Rachel,> Cassie said. <You’re going the wrong way.>

She pushed her dolphin nose under me and propelled me up and up - had I sunk that far? – till my face exploded upward, passing from black water into falling rain.

I swallowed air, swallowed water, slipped back under when a wave took me, then was lifted once more into the air.

I realized I was straddling the dolphin’s back. I sagged forward and hugged Cassie’s back.

“Thanks,” I managed to gasp.

<Take a minute. When you’re ready I’ll keep you above water till you’re dolphin enough.>

Ten minutes later we all had morphed to dolphin. Cassie supported me, then she and I supported Jake. The rest morphed quickly after that. Tobias went last. He had to pass through red-tailed phase, so we all worked to keep him above water.

<Great weather for this,> Marco grumbled. <What is this, a hurricane? It’s not bad enough being a half-bird, half-human trying to swim. We gotta do it in the middle of a typhoon?>

<Water,> Tobias said darkly. <See, this is what happens. Water is always trouble. Up in the sky you can at least see what’s going on.>

<And yet all the worry I felt seems to have evaporated,> Ax said. <I feel … quite relaxed. Happy, even.>

<Dolphin brain,> Marco said.

It was true, of course. It’s very hard to stay upset when you’re in dolphin morph. A dolphin in the ocean is like a kid in a candy store. Like Cassie at a nature preserve. Or like me at a department store sale.

Had Ax acquired a dolphin earlier? He had the shark morph, but I didn't think he had the dolphin.

quote:

<Well, we’re all alive, so let’s get going. We’re already probably late,> Jake said.

<Approximately ten minutes behind the schedule we discussed,> Ax said.

<Let’s motor,> I said.

We took off, a happy, contented pod of dolphins, slipping in and out of the water. We plowed through the almost vertical walls of advancing waves, suddenly going airborne out the back sides.

Storm? What storm? Waves? Waves were fun! Darkness? Who cared? We could echolocate. Wind? It was cool. It could make you soar further when you jumped. Thunder? Just a noise.

As for lightning … well, if you swim underwater and you roll onto your side so you can point one eye straight up, the lightning becomes this huge flashbulb. The entire surface of the water flashes brilliant silver, but it’s a twisted, mottled silver, like a platter someone has battered with a hammer.

One eye up to the lightning, one eye down into darkness. It didn’t bother the dolphin brain. The dolphin brain didn’t really have the emotion of fear. Maybe other creatures knew fear, but the dolphin brain was not programmed for it.

Unless, of course, I suddenly saw a black-and-white pinto pony pattern. That would mean a killer whale. And then the dolphin instinct for survival would kick in.

But towering waves? Lightning? Howling wind? Black water? They meant nothing to me.

We ran along the coast till a leap in the air revealed the far-too-familiar lights of the Marriott resort. And now my human mind came back full force, with all its own fears and rages.

See, we weren’t done morphing in the water. And this time it would be in the surf.

So killer whales and sharks are really the only animals that prey on dolphins. In fact, that's sort of how killer whales got their name. The original Spanish name for them was "Asesina-ballenas", which basically means "whale killers" or "kills whales", because orca pods will sometimes go after small whales. When this got translated into English, it got mixed up as "kiler whales".

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

Animorphs Book 22-The Solution, Chapter 11

Had Ax acquired a dolphin earlier? He had the shark morph, but I didn't think he had the dolphin.

He got it at the start of Megamorphs #2. Which I think makes it one of the few times one of those has actually contributed to main series continuity.

quote:

So killer whales and sharks are really the only animals that prey on dolphins. In fact, that's sort of how killer whales got their name. The original Spanish name for them was "Asesina-ballenas", which basically means "whale killers" or "kills whales", because orca pods will sometimes go after small whales. When this got translated into English, it got mixed up as "kiler whales".

They're also technically dolphins, hence the name. Spanish adjective-noun reversal strikes again.

freebooter
Jul 7, 2009

quote:

It was true, of course. It’s very hard to stay upset when you’re in dolphin morph. A dolphin in the ocean is like a kid in a candy store. Like Cassie at a nature preserve. Or like me at a department store sale.

This is a nice subtle touch, given how much she's fretting over the New Rachel and thinking about how she doesn't really recognise her old self that loved gymnastics and shopping. Like she's trying to convince herself.

I vaguely remember reading something, but can't find it now, about researchers watching tagged great white sharks off the Northern California coast. Something affected a bunch of them and just made them take off and completely vacate an area, and when they cross-referenced the data with another tagging project they realised it was the arrival of a bunch of killer whales.

edit - oh, and for some reason the "throwing the chess board across the room" metaphor has stuck with me ever since.

freebooter fucked around with this message at 09:33 on May 12, 2021

Pwnstar
Dec 9, 2007

Who wants some waffles?

It feels like 90% of Animorphs plans end up with them getting foiled at the last minute and they decide "ok gently caress it lets go crazy"

Epicurius
Apr 10, 2010
College Slice
Animorphs Book 22-The Solution, Chapter 13

quote:

We echolocated a submarine about a mile offshore. Dangerously close, I thought. And of course we were very aware of a number of fast Coast Guard patrol boats cruising up and down through the surging sea.

They played searchlights over the water. But naturally, it was child’s play for a dolphin to avoid them.

They disappeared at last behind a small, rugged island about a mile offshore. It was nothing but a jumble of rocks, really. Plus a couple of scruffy trees. I popped up out of the water to get a better look. I didn’t know why, then, but something about that desolate place made me edgy. Or at least as edgy as you can get while you’re a dolphin.

We swam toward shore, the six of us abreast. I could echolocate the rising slope of the seabed. It was only a few feet deep and even the dolphin brain was nervous as we felt the waves crashing down and almost slamming us into sand and gravel and broken shells.

<Are we close enough?> Marco wondered.

<We need to get as close as we can,> Cassie said. <A little more.>

Soon my gray rubber belly was scraping the sand and my tail was almost useless.

<Okay, now,> Cassie said. <Our morphs should be able to power up out of this depth.>

I began to demorph. I wasn’t looking forward to it. This was practically Hawaii-sized surf. The waves gained power as they came rushing up the sloping seabed. All that water just kept piling higher and higher till it was a rushing, teetering, two-story wall of water.

I tried to time it, but there was no way. A wave caught me mid-morph and slammed me facedown into the sand. Worst of all, we could not allow ourselves to be washed up onto the beach. The beach was crawling with security patrols. Guys in night-vision goggles who saw everything as though it
were illuminated by a green sun.

We could not be seen till we were ready. For that reason the surf was perfect. For every other reason, it was definitely not.

I made it to human morph and was nailed by a wave of exhaustion almost as devastating as the real waves. Morphing wears you out. Morphing repeatedly on no sleep is beyond exhausting. I swear I could have just lain down in the water and fallen asleep. But then I was propelled almost headfirst into the wet seabed.

I fought my way back up and grimly set about morphing yet again.

Now things began to change for the better. I was morphing an African elephant. Tons of African elephant. As I passed my first ton, I found the surf didn’t bother me quite as much.

I backed further out to sea to conceal my growing bulk and keep the very recognizable elephant head silhouette from being seen onshore.

I looked left from one eye and right from the other. I saw the rest of my friends growing vast and bulky in the surf.

Jake was in his rhinoceros morph. Marco had chosen to acquire that same animal. Cassie, Tobias, Ax, and I were a matched set of elephants.

The elephant and rhino morphs had several things in common. They were faster than they looked. It took more than a handgun to knock them down. And people who saw them coming had a tendency to want to run away.

We were, I don’t know, maybe fifteen tons of bone and horn and tusk and muscle.

<Ready?> Jake asked.

<Ready,> Marco answered.

<This animal’s nose moves quite delicately,> Ax said.

I could see fairly well with the elephant’s eyes, unlike Jake and Marco, who were half-blind. I could see the softly lit bungalows just off the beach. I could see the taller, brightly lit hotel building beyond.

Our goal was the bungalows. They housed the world leaders. Our plan was painfully simple. If we couldn’t stop the Yeerks by subtle means, we’d just tear the place apart. Then, most likely, the big banquet where Visser Three hoped to strike would be canceled.

Like I said, not a brilliant plan. But you know what? As tired, mad, scared, annoyed, worried, and filled with self-doubt as I was at that moment, the sweet simplicity of it all seemed like pure genius to me.

<Hey, Marco, who’s that comic book character who’s always yelling, “It’s butt-kicking time”?> I asked.

<That’s the Thing. And what he says is, “It’s clobberin’ time.”>

<Yeah? Well, whatever. Let’s go do some serious stomping!>

Just, gently caress it, let's go crazy.

Chapter 14

quote:

You almost had to feel sorry for the Secret Service and all the other security guys on the beach, huddling in the rain beneath their ponchos while they gazed through night-vision goggles. One minute it’s nothing but waves and lightning. The next minute it looks like a small pod of whales has decided to get up out of the ocean and go hang out on the beach.

I mean, their training must have prepared them for almost anything. But not, definitely not for the possibility that two rhinos and four African elephants would come trumpeting and snorting out of a one-hundred-year-storm surf.

“Hhhrrrreeeyyaaahhhh!” I announced myself.

I heard a human voice say, “What the -?”

I broke into a charging run. I had to deal with a little bit of a slope, but I had plenty of power and legs the size of tree trunks.

I raised my trunk high and bellowed again.

“Hhhrrrreeee-uh!”

I was running full tilt. So were the others. Suddenly, the lightning flashed and I could see half a dozen utterly baffled men and women in drenched rain slickers, staring at us with six identical open mouths.

Only one reacted like he had a clue. He drew his gun and started firing. Right at me.

BLAM! BLAM!

You’d think a trained marksman could hit an elephant. But I guess it isn’t all that easy in a pitchblack night with rain in your face.

Chances were the guy who was firing at me was a Controller. A normal human’s first thought would not be to shoot an elephant on the beach.

I went at the man, full speed.

BLAM! BLAM!

The muzzle flash was like tiny echoes of the lightning. This time I felt a bullet hit me in the shoulder. It didn’t hurt, exactly. I was just sort of aware of it.

He didn’t get a chance to fire again. I lowered my head, bringing my hugely long tusks into line with the gunman, and he turned and ran.

<Remember, we have to assume these are all innocent humans,> Jake said.

His thought-speak voice came to me just as I was considering whether I should run the guy through with my tusks or trample him. Of course, Jake was right. These were innocent bystanders.

Mostly.

We were here to wreak havoc and scare the heck out of everyone, but not to hurt anyone on purpose.

Now other guards had decided they’d better shoot at us, too. All down the beach came the sound of gunfire, along with shouts and cries that were instantly snatched away by the howling wind.

<Everyone ready?> Jake called. <Charge!>

Marco laughed. <Charge? I bet he’s always wanted to say that.>

We charged. Like some mondo freak-o version of Gettysburg, we raced up the beach toward the two closest bungalows.

Fifty yards!

Twenty yards!

I was eating up the beach, my big round feet plowing deep with each step.

A line of bushes. I barely registered thorny scrapes on my gray leather hide.

I was huge! I was a tank! I was running at full speed, my sail-like ears flapping in the wind, my powerful trunk trumpeting madly, my tusks thrusting, searching for something to impale.

I was pure power, pure momentum, pure out-of-control animal energy.

I tore through a decorative trellis and stomped it to toothpicks. Then, a wall! I ran, slewed my head to the side, and slammed that wall with my right shoulder.

WHUMPF!

Crunch!

I backed up a step and swung my weight forward again.

WHUMPF!

Crrrrrunch!

<One more time!> I cried, laughing idiotically in my head. I backed up and this time there was no “whumpf!” just a tearing, breaking, twisting sound. All of a sudden, bright light shone out on me from the big hole I’d made in the wall.

Then I saw Marco in his new rhinoceros morph plow into and through the door. “Into and through” being all one motion.

The security guys were getting serious. Elephants and rhinos running around - well, that was almost funny. Elephants and rhinos beating in doors and knocking down walls - that was a whole different matter.

I shoved at the hole I’d made and found myself blinking in the bright light. Blinking and staring at Marco, and at the man sitting in an easy chair wearing a tuxedo shirt, a tie, black socks, and glossy black shoes. His tux coat and pants were draped over a chair. He had a somewhat familiar face. The
leader of a great power.

He was sitting in his Jockey shorts and calmly pouring a glass from a bottle of clear liquor. Then he glared belligerently at me and Marco.

Now, I’m not going to say who this man was, or what nation he headed, but he was drunk. Drunk, but no coward. He just sat there in his underwear, glaring at us, defying us.

Yeltsin. It's Yeltsin.

quote:

<What do we do?> Marco asked me.

<I guess we go tear up someone else’s bungalow,> I suggested. Suddenly about twelve security guys came bursting into the room, guns drawn. And not just handguns, either. These guys had automatic weapons on us.

But the man in the chair said something loud and curt in a foreign language. No one fired. The man in the chair made a sort of “after you” sweep with one hand, indicating that maybe Marco and I should leave.

So we did. We went out through another wall and dragged half the roof down with us, but we left.

Behind us I heard a loud roar of delighted laughter. Like we’d really made the old guy’s day.

I guess if you think about it, hanging out with a bunch of politicians talking about peace must be kind of dull. After a couple days of that, maybe you kind of welcome massive, enraged animals barging through your living room.

A cunning and subtle plan.

Comrade Blyatlov
Aug 4, 2007


should have picked four fingers





Huh. Maybe Yeltsin isn't the Controller.

JavaJesus
Jul 4, 2007

I'm going to choose to believe that he actually is the Controller, but after however many days of hearing Visser Three yell about the Andalite bandits he was absolutely ready to get wasted in his bungalow and wave them on through when they burst in.

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

JavaJesus posted:

I'm going to choose to believe that he actually is the Controller, but after however many days of hearing Visser Three yell about the Andalite bandits he was absolutely ready to get wasted in his bungalow and wave them on through when they burst in.

Also, alcohol trivially crosses the blood-brain barrier, so I assume the yeerk wasn't thinking very clearly at that moment either.

Pwnstar
Dec 9, 2007

Who wants some waffles?

My dream: A book where a non-combatant Yeerk uses his advanced knowledge and tech skills to help his host fight crime in exchange for access to tasty food and drink. The key plot convenience is that this Yeerk can only take full control when the host is asleep leading to Jekyll and Hyde shenanigans. The host is straight laced but the Yeerk likes to party.

feetnotes
Jan 29, 2008

Rachel refers to her own body as a “human morph” in one of those passages. Editorial slip, or intentional characterization of loss of identity in her exhaustion? Either way, kinda interesting.

Epicurius
Apr 10, 2010
College Slice
Animorphs Book 22-The Solution, Chapter 15

quote:

We headed back out into the rain, which was now coming down so hard we might as well have been back in the ocean.
It was chaos!

Spotlights were shining down from the top of the hotel, sweeping madly here and there. There was the pop!pop!pop! of gunfire. There were men in dark suits racing back and forth, guns drawn.

There were guys in tuxedos and women in formal gowns running and tripping and yelling. I heard helicopters chopping the air overhead.

And through it all galumphed elephants and rhinoceroses, banging into anything we could bang into.

The thunder was rattling windows. The rain was turning everything to mud. And every few seconds, the lightning would flash and I’d see the entire madhouse scene frozen by the strobe light.

It would have been funny. If people weren’t shooting at us.

I targeted the next undamaged bungalow and called to Marco. <Hey! Knock that door down. I’ll come right after you.>

<What door? I can’t see that far.>

<Veer left,> I instructed. <Okay, go go go! Left!>

WHAM!

<That was no door!>

<I told you left,> I said. <Never mind, I’ll finish it.>

I slammed the hole in the wall that Marco had started. This time it went down easier. Two hits and the wall collapsed inward.

BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!

Four bullets hit me in the head. I felt them as hammer blows.

I backed away from a phalanx of disciplined, determined-looking men. There were three of them. Behind them, looking mystified, was the most powerful man on Earth.

I swear I had to fight down this ridiculous urge to say, “It’s an honor to meet you, sir!”

But blood was flowing down my face and I was feeling dizzy. The bullets had done some damage.

I backed up, dragging bits of plaster and pieces of splintered wood with me. I backed up into a soldier sliding down a rope that seemed to drop out of the sky. I could hear the helicopter directly overhead. More ropes coiled down and more black-uniformed men slid down.

These guys were armed to the teeth. It was time to leave.

<Jake!> I yelled into the darkness. <Jake! The reinforcements are coming in!>

<Time to bail!> Jake yelled to everyone. <Everyone back to the beach!>

Brahahahahahahahahat!

Automatic weapons were firing. I felt my left rear leg catch fire. At least that’s what it felt like.

I staggered back and the injured leg almost collapsed. I was hit, and badly.

<Come on, Marco, let’s get out of here!>

<But I didn’t even get to see the President,> he complained.

<Marco, this really isn’t the time.>

We turned and crashed back through the trellises and shrubbery and out onto the windswept, soggy beach.

A human staggered in front of me. He was mud-smeared and ankle-deep in wet sand. And he was furious. Tony, the White House protocol chief. Except that we knew Tony had been acquired by Visser Three as a morph.

And judging by the screamingly enraged look on “Tony’s” face, this was Visser Three.

For a frozen instant, we locked eyes. He knew what I was. I knew what he was.

<I guess we can assume the banquet has been canceled, Visser,> I said. <Now, let’s see how fast you can run!>

I went for him, but I stumbled. I was in worse shape than I’d realized. He scampered back, realizing I couldn’t catch him. He bounced up and down with rage, shouting, “I won’t kill you when I catch you, Andalite! I will make you beg for death!”

No time to sit and exchange pleasant conversation. Besides, we weren’t even supposed to talk to Yeerks. We didn’t want them realizing we weren’t Andalites.

Down the sand I saw the others, some staggering, some seemingly unhurt. I left Visser Three ranting and raving and took off on three good legs. We ran for the water’s edge, bullets whizzing after us, and plowed into the surf.

I began demorphing instantly, even as I continued to motor out against the waves. Demorphing would save my life. The bullets should drop harmlessly away, but even if they didn’t, all the damage they’d done would be repaired.

I was giddy. I was going to survive! I was laughing, laughing at the sheer, insane rush of it all. No weariness now, just mad, frantic glee at having escaped alive.

<How will they ever, ever explain that?> Tobias wondered.

<I don’t know,> I said, <but that’s one summit meeting no one will forget.>

So, speculations it was Yeltsin aside, we never found out which world leader was Yeerked. I also sort of wonder if Visser Three is going to take this out on the real Tony.

Chapter 16

quote:

I was demorphing to human as fast as I could. As dangerous as it was, the weather probably saved us at this point. The Coast Guard boat had come in closer, but there was no way it could get right in to shore, not with those waves.

I demorphed to human and could feel the injuries fading away, the bullet lead dropping harmlessly to the bottom of the sea.

Once again, I was half-drowned by the time I’d made it safely back to dolphin morph. But I almost didn’t care. The after-action depression was starting to set in. The special brand of weariness that comes when all the adrenaline has begun to wear off.

The dolphin mind rescued me. It was as irresistibly happy as always. The DNA of its instincts was reconstituted, fresh with the morphing.

I kicked my gray tail and felt my rubber skin slide easily, confidently through the water. I dove beneath the huffing, chugging Coast Guard cutter and headed out to sea.

And that’s when it happened. I fired an echolocation burst, a series of fast, ultrahigh frequency sound waves. The sound waves traveled through the water and bounced back from anything they hit. It was like sonar. Underwater radar.

Then I saw in my mind the outline, the shape. The shape that was imprinted in the deepest DNA archives of the dolphin brain.

It was long. Maybe twenty feet. It was vast, perhaps ten thousand pounds. From its back a long, almost straight dorsal fin rose. The echolocation did not show color. But I knew that when it got closer I would see a black-and-white pattern.

<Killer whale!> I yelled.

It was coming toward us. Its speed was incredible! Something that big shouldn’t be able to move so fast.

It was coming for us, and we were helpless. It was faster, more powerful, far, far more deadly.

We were more agile, but I knew one thing for sure: It was killer whales who ate dolphins, not the other way around.

<I have it on echolocation,> Cassie agreed tensely.

<What is this creature?> Ax asked.

<It’s actually a species of dolphin,> Cassie said. <A close relative of this species we’ve morphed.>

<Yeah, close relative,> I muttered. <Like Chihuahuas and Dobermans are close relatives.>

<There’s just one,> Cassie said. <Strange.>

<Why? What’s strange?> Tobias asked.

<Just that orcas usually hunt as a pack,> Cassie said.

<Yeah, well this one is hunting us all by himself,> Tobias said. <Big as he is, he won’t need any help!> <What do we do?> Marco asked.

<He’s just a killer whale,> Jake said. <We have human intelligence as well. We can’t outfight or outrun him. We’ll have to outthink him.>

<Head for the Coast Guard boat!> Tobias suggested. <We’ll get beneath it and stay with it. The sound of the screws will keep him away.>

<Good idea,> Jake said. We turned sharply and raced for the boat. It wasn’t going to be easy. We needed to get beneath a boat that wasn’t all that big while it was rising and falling on the waves.

Besides, we were air breathers. We had to surface to get air, and couldn’t hide there forever.

But it seemed to make sense. And would probably have worked. Except for one terrible fact.

<Ha-ha-ha, you think the propeller sounds will scare me off?> the killer whale said. <Nice try.>

A few chapters ago: Well, the only thing to be frightened of as a dolphin is a killer whale!
Now: Oh no, David's a killer whale.

Also, male killer whales can weigh up to 12,000 pounds, with females weighing about half that.

WrightOfWay
Jul 24, 2010


I'm impressed David managed to get a killer whale morph. That can't have been easy.

freebooter
Jul 7, 2009

Gotta wonder where the hell he acquired that.

edit - lol beaten

Rochallor
Apr 23, 2010

ふっっっっっっっっっっっっck
This is maybe a few too coincidences too many. David could reasonably assume they're going to try and finish the mission, but he'd also have to know they're coming by water in a dolphin morph (cause if they were all sharks he'd be boned), acquire a killer whale, and also figure out their exact approach vector. The ocean's a big place.

FlocksOfMice
Feb 3, 2009

Rochallor posted:

This is maybe a few too coincidences too many. David could reasonably assume they're going to try and finish the mission, but he'd also have to know they're coming by water in a dolphin morph (cause if they were all sharks he'd be boned), acquire a killer whale, and also figure out their exact approach vector. The ocean's a big place.

He could have just been in watch in bird form. They fed him false info about their plan, so he thought they'd be up to something, even if it wasn't what they did. When he sees them come out of the ocean, raise a disaster, and... no, wait, there's a storm going on, he couldn't easily fly further out into the ocean and go whale, could he? Unless he landed on that island they pass?

Hm huh ok yeah

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Comrade Blyatlov
Aug 4, 2007


should have picked four fingers





Or, like all good nemeses, he's read the script and knows where to hit.

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